Acid-base in situ reaction enhanced dispersion of copper ferrocyanide on modified polyacrylonitrile membrane for efficient Cs removal

Immobilization of metal ferrocyanides (MFCs) on the surface of substrate is supposed to be an efficient method for selectively removing cesium ions. In this study, the high adsorption performance of modified polyacrylonitrile membrane for Cs removal was fabricated by incorporating copper ferrocyanide (CuFC) nanoparticle via in situ acid-base reaction of carboxylated polyacrylonitrile (CPAN) and Cu(OH) 2 during the phase inversion process. Simultaneously, the induced coprecipitation reaction caused the uniformly embedded CuFC throughout the substrate of CPAN. The obtained CuFC-CPAN showed a preferred adsorption capacity of 331.65 mg g −1 and favorable selectivity in the presence of numerous coexisting ions. The experimental validation and characterizations suggested the adsorption mechanism was mainly ion exchange with a fraction of electrostatic attraction. The high pH stability and reusability make the CuFC-CPAN membrane a reliable choice for efficient Cs removal.